Contraband (2012)

Contraband Synopsis

Mark Wahlberg leads the cast of Contraband, a fast-paced thriller about a man trying to stay out of a world he worked so hard to leave behind and the family he'll do anything to protect. Set in New Orleans, the film explores the cutthroat underground world of international smuggling -- full of desperate criminals and corrupt officials, high-stakes and big payoffs -- where loyalty rarely exists and death is one wrong turn away.

Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) long ago abandoned his life of crime, but after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does best--running contraband--to settle Andy's debt. Chris is a legendary smuggler and quickly assembles a crew with the help of his best friend, Sebastian (Ben Foster), to head to Panama and return with millions in counterfeit bills.

Things quickly fall apart and with only hours to reach the cash, Chris must use his rusty skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal drug lords, cops and hit men before his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and sons become their target.

Based on Arnaldur Indriđason's best-selling novel, the film focused on a detective who believes the fresh murder case he's investigating ties into a 30-year-old unsolved rape investigation. Universal has picked up the project, seemingly because of the success of the Mark Wahlberg vehicle Contraband, which garnered mixed reviews but earned an impressive box office of $96 million worldwide.

When it comes to effects that make it look like something truly awful is happening to a famous face, you can look 3 or 4 times without figuring out the secret, never expecting it to be some of the simplest editing tricks in the world. That's how the visual effects supervisor of Contraband

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This week on Operation Kino we've swapped in David Ehrlich for special guest Mike Ryan, who joins us to review the latest Marky Mark effort Contraband. From there we move on to a topic dear to Mike's heart, Star Wars, specifically the upcoming 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace and whether we should be nicer about that movie

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Yep. Looks like Wahlberg’s ready to go to great lengths to protect his family from some pretty nasty thugs. I don’t know enough about Contraband director Baltasar Kormákur, an Icelandic filmmaker whose credits include Jar City and Inhale. So we have to lean on the cast, which is pretty impressive

The trailer for the new Mark Wahlberg thriller Contraband opens with this bit of dialogue: "You were the best of the best. But the proudest day of my life was when you turned legit. You started a family and you got outta the life." When a trailer opens with that kind of bald-faced exposition, in which a father speaks the facts of a son's life who knows these things perfectly well, you know you're headed somewhere very, very familiar

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